First Look: Jack Black as R.L. Stine in 'Goosebumps' Horror Adventure

With the exception of Kung Fu Panda, there hasn't been much to enjoy about the more family friendly work of Jack Black lately. Therefore we're hopeful but skeptical about him starring in Goosebumps, a film inspired by the R.L. Stine horror book series for kids of the same name from the actor's Gulliver's Travels director Rob Letterman. However, the meta storyline sees Black playing Stine himself, a monster whisperer of sorts who uses his books to keep these terrors locked up. Now we have two first look photos from the film featuring Black with Dylan Minnette (Prisoners) and Odeya Rush (We Are What We Are).

"This is obviously a fictionalized version of his life and nothing that happens in this movie actually happened to him, other than him writing all the books. So I felt like, I was just going to approach it as a character, doing what I thought was most dramatically interesting and right for what was needed. I also got to meet R.L. and he’s a really great guy. Really smart and funny and sweet. But I made [the character] more of a sort of curmudgeonly dark, brooding beast master. So from the very beginning, I was taking liberties. I think he’s cool with it though. He’s been on set and he actually did a little cameo.”

In his new neighborhood, teen Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) meets the beautiful girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush). But then Zach learns Hannah's father is R.L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange: he is a prisoner of his own imagination. The monsters in his books are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it’s up t them to get the monsters back in the books where they belong. Rob Letterman (Gulliver's Travels) directs the film which Columbia Pictures releases next summer on August 7th, 2015.